


The (Hair) Lengths We Go to For Love

by edenofalltrades



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Halloween Costumes, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:55:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28820319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenofalltrades/pseuds/edenofalltrades
Summary: Poe finds himself in a hairy situation after Rey convinces him to dress up as Loki for Halloween.
Relationships: Poe Dameron & Rose Tico, Poe Dameron/Rey
Comments: 14
Kudos: 20
Collections: Damerey Discord Shenanigans





	The (Hair) Lengths We Go to For Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bright_Boisterous_Bananas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bright_Boisterous_Bananas/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY [Bright_Boisterous_Bananas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bright_Boisterous_Bananas/profile)! I hope you have a fantastic day! ❤️
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars and will not be making any profit from this story.
> 
> A huge thank you to taidine for beta reading and to [damerey_knows](https://archiveofourown.org/users/damerey_knows/profile) and [Olpgurl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Olpgurl/profile) for feedback on several plot points.

It was a truth universally acknowledged among all those who knew them that Poe Dameron adored his girlfriend, Rey Solo, and would do anything to make her happy. 

Sometimes, he wished he adored her _just_ a little less... or at the very least was that he was able to say no to her. 

Like when she dragged him to a fancy molecular gastronomy restaurant which had tiny portions that cost ridiculous prices because someone in her office couldn't stop raving about it. Or when she convinced him to go to the play her brother was starring in which was just two and a half hours of Ben Solo yelling at other white people with no intermission. Or now, as he looked down at the hair straightener he was forced to buy so he could fulfill her fantasies of dressing up Loki to her Valkyrie for their friend's Halloween party. 

It all started a few months prior when Poe got a brand new, 55 inch, 4K UHD television and invited Rey to test drive it with him. Her choice of movie was Thor: Ragnarok, which was her favorite Marvel movie but one that she only ever watched on a small screen. Poe had no problem with her choice. Although Iron Man was always his favorite Avenger, he admitted Ragnarok, with its colorful scenery, was a great movie to try out on his new TV. Especially with his girlfriend curled up against him.

_"You know what would be a great idea?" Rey asked as they were halfway through the movie. Looking back at it, Poe should have realized then that he was in danger._

_"What, sunshine?"_

_"If next Halloween you dressed up as Loki," Rey purred, her hand weaved through Poe's hair._

_"Oh, I don't..." Poe stammered. He had always seen Rey's crush on Tom Hiddleston, especially in his Loki costume, as harmless. He never thought it would interfere in his actual life._

_"I think you would look great in that costume," Rey whispered in his ear. Stopping to kiss his cheek, she added, "Though I know I'd have trouble all night trying to keep from tearing it off of you."_

_Poe gulped, feeling the blood start to rush south. "Okay, I'll do it."_

_"Great, thanks!" Rey cheered, her tone going from seductive to upbeat in a flash. She knew exactly what effect she had on him. Not that he ever tried to hide it._

Rey had gone back to watching the film, happily munching on her popcorn, while Poe tried to come up with ideas for how to best approach the costume. He wasn't about to make the entire thing himself but there had to be some happy medium between that and getting something cheap from Party City. And the hair... Poe refused to sit with a wig all night so he would just have to grow his out. At least the money he would save from regular upkeep could go towards the costume. 

By the time Halloween came, Poe questioned his decision to not use a wig. The ever-growing length, a contrast to his normally well-groomed hair, was constantly getting in his way and starting to grate on his nerves to the point where he had to keep elastics around at all times to pull it back. Rey seemed to like the man-bun, but he couldn't wait to be rid of it. 

"Just a few more days," Poe muttered to no one in particular as he plugged the hair straightener in. "Then I can go to Beaumont's and finally get this taken care of."

Turning the iron on, Poe waited impatiently for it to heat up so he could get to work. When the indicator went off, he took a deep cleansing breath, grabbed a lock of hair, and ran it through the straightener...

... only for the hair to snap back in one of his signature curls. 

"What the?!"

Poe put the hair back through the plates of the straightener, pressing tighter and pulling down slower. He could hear the hissing of the straightener, could feel the steam on his hand, but the hair still came out slightly curled at the end. 

Finn called when Poe put his hair in the plates for the third - and what he hoped would be final - round of straightening. 

"Hey man, are you down for some mischief tonight?" Finn teased, knowing about Poe's plan. 

"Funny," Poe deadpanned as he set the phone on speaker mode, putting it down on the ledge in front of him. When they heard about how Rey convinced Poe to dress up, Rose and Finn decided to join in on the fun as well, with Finn dressing up as Captain America and Rose going as Black Widow. 

Poe was so lost in his conversation with Finn that he didn’t notice he still had his hair pressed in the straightener until he smelled something burning. Stopping mid-sentence, Poe released the straightener, watching in horror as a lock of his singed hair fell in the sink below. 

“Finn! Buddy! I need you to tell Rose to come over right away! I’m having a hair emergency!”

“You’re having a wha-” Poe ended the call before Finn could finish

Turning the straightener off, Poe stared at the hair in the sink, hoping Rose would get the message and come over soon.

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Poe’s doorbell rang. 

“Finn said you had a hair emergency?” A very confused Rose asked when Poe opened the door. 

“Yes!” Poe lifted up the strands with the burnt ends. “I need help with the straightener. So much help. Please.”

Rose covered her mouth, trying to stifle a laugh. “Alright, let’s see what we can do.”

Under Rose’s instruction, Poe put a trash bag down on the floor of his bedroom, setting a stool on top of it so he could sit while Rose worked. The extra cherry on top of the shit sundae was having to wear a makeshift smock fashioned out of a garbage bag so Rose could trim his hair. Length was another thing Poe hadn’t factored in. Having not straightened his hair since that one time in college where he was going through a phase (and even then it was his roommate wielding the straightener), Poe forgot that straightening curly hair made it longer.

“So unless you want to deal with the hair going past your shoulders,” Rose pulled down some of the longer strands for effect. “You’re going to have to let me trim it, too.”

Poe weighed his options. On the one hand he was very selective with who he let trust his hair, and having slightly longer hair than he was intending wouldn’t be that big of a deal. On the other hand, she needed to cut the singed ends off anyway so might as well keep going to make it consistent with the length it was supposed to be. 

“Fine,” Poe conceded as he sat down on the chair with slumped shoulders, pouting the entire time Rose worked to straighten his hair. 

"You must really be desperate if you turned to me for help," Rose commented as she ran a comb through Poe's hair, putting it through her fingers and cutting off the burnt ends using the techniques in the YouTube video she’d put on while Poe set up the makeshift workstation. 

"I wanted to surprise Rey with the whole costume, not call her for help because I messed up doing my hair," Poe revealed. The excited look on her face was what kept him going all those months as his hair grew out and got so annoying he almost took clippers to it himself on more than one occasion. 

“Well, whatever reason you had for calling me over scheduling an emergency appointment with your regular guy, I’m glad you trusted me.” Poe couldn’t miss the twinge of sadness in Rose’s voice. 

“Of course I trust you, Rosie,” Poe frowned.

“I know it’s just…” Rose trailed off. “Never mind.”

“Just what?”

“We haven’t really hung out since you started dating Rey and I started dating Finn.” Rose paused cutting his hair to shrug. “I know growing up you saw me as Paige’s dorky younger sister, but you were really there for me after she died and I thought we were finally building a friendship of our own.”

Poe froze. He had been so focused on how happy he was with Rey the last few months, he didn’t realize he had been neglecting his friendship with Rose. Part of him rationalized it as time they would have been apart anyway because Rose was happily dating Finn but he knew how weak that excuse was.

Poe waited for Rose to finish cutting the strands she had been working on to turn around, putting his hand over hers. “I’m so sorry, Rosie. I never meant to make you feel like I forgot about you.” 

“Poe, it’s okay,” Rose smiled sadly as she tried to brush off his concerns. 

“No, it’s not.” Poe shook his head. “Please let me make it up to you. Let’s have more double dates with Rey and Finn like we used to back when we started dating them. And dinner, one night a week just the two of us.”

Finn and Rey were best friends from college who had dinner together once a week to catch up, there was no reason why Poe and Rose couldn’t do the same. 

“Okay,” Rose nodded with a smile. “That sounds good. Now turn around so I can finish doing your hair.”

* * *

A full hour later, thanks to Rose’s help, Poe’s hair was finally ready. 

“It’s so weird seeing you with straight hair again,” Rose commented. “I’m half expecting you to pick up a guitar and start playing those emo songs you used to write back in the day.”

“Excuse you, it was ska,” Poe corrected. “And don’t worry, those days are far behind me.”

The fact that he was in the middle of composing a love ballad to Rey for their anniversary was a whole other matter. 

“I’m going to go put on the costume. Then hopefully all of this,” Poe waved a hand around his hair. “Won’t look completely out of place.”

Rose was right, with just a t-shirt and jeans on he did look a lot like he did in college, to the point where it was starting to creep him out. Putting on the outfit made the hair look less jarring. It was exactly how he pictured the costume when Rey first proposed the idea to him. 

“What do you think?” Poe asked Rose when he walked back into his room.

“It looks great!” Rose beamed, supportive as ever. “Rey is going to love it!”

“Thank you so much for the help!” Poe hugged Rose. “I never would have been able to get this done without you.”

“I’m happy I could help.” Rose patted Poe’s back before pulling back to say, “I should probably go back to Finn’s and get ready myself. See you at the party?”

“See you there,” Poe confirmed.

* * *

Poe stopped by a flower shop on the way to the party, partly so he could surprise Rey and partly so he would ensure he didn’t get to the event before she did. 

With the detour he arrived at the party a fashionably late twenty minutes post start time. Something he was sure Loki would have appreciated. 

Finn spotted him first, and was about to wave when Poe put up a finger to his lips, not wanting to ruin the surprise for Rey. The volume of the crowd aiding him in sneaking up to her so he could whisper in her ear, “Trick or Treat, milady?”

Rey froze, turning around slowly to face him. Her expression was exactly as Poe had imagined it would be and it filled his heart with joy. “Poe, you…”

“Do you like it?” Poe smirked as he handed Rey the rose he bought on his way. 

“You look fantastic!” Rey beamed, smelling the rose before she snapped the stem so it could fit in the small pouch she had attached to her waist belt. 

Her armor looked straight out of the pages of a comic book, with even the smallest details noted. Unlike Poe, Rey made her own costume, spending months working with EVA foam and faux leather. The outfit, customized to her exact specifications, showed off exactly how toned her arms and legs were. Poe remembered Rey’s words, about how she thought she would struggle to keep from tearing off his outfit all night but looking at her, it definitely went both ways. 

Rey ran her hand up Poe’s chest, feeling the fabric. Although he didn’t craft his costume, Rey seemed to approve of it all the same. Unlike Rey, who wanted to be in control of all of the details of her costume, Poe just wanted convenience and Etsy was a perfect solution to his dilemma. 

“How much longer until we can go home?” Rey asked seductively. 

Poe threw his head back, laughing heartily at her impatience. If it were up to him, they would already be halfway to his apartment, but he knew how much work Rose put into his hair, how much time Rey spent working on her outfit, and he didn’t want all of that to go to waste because their libidos were out of control. No matter how tempting. “Three hours, four, tops.”

That seemed like a good compromise. 

“Two and a half hours?” Rey counter-offered.

“Deal!” Poe grinned before leaning over to kiss her, making a mental note to set his watch for exactly two and a half hours. 


End file.
